


The Women Speak

by Meltha



Category: The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Genre: Gen, alternate narrator, poem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:14:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28139013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meltha/pseuds/Meltha
Summary: The women trapped behind the pattern speak as one.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 16
Collections: Yuletide Madness 2020





	The Women Speak

**Author's Note:**

  * For [havisham](https://archiveofourown.org/users/havisham/gifts).



We have always been here, behind the wallpaper.   
Most do not see us, and that is the way we want it.   
When they do, their reactions are not usually pleasant. 

Some of them want to erase us,   
Use a Pink Pearl between the patterns  
And leave the wall clean.   
They try in vain.   
We cannot be erased. 

Others laugh at us.   
We are not to be laughed at.   
We hold truth,   
And when truth becomes laughable,   
The world cracks in half. 

A few ask us our names.  
We lost those long ago  
If we ever really had them.  
Instead, we are Anonymous  
And our numbers are legion.

This one tried to free us.  
It happens, but rarely.  
She saw us, creeping,  
Slipping between the lines,  
And she wanted us out.

The seismic shift of the world folds like a paper airplane  
Made from the pages of a book.  
It swallowed her whole.

She has always been here, behind the wallpaper.


End file.
